Combat aircraft top int'l arms sales

Combat planes account for one third of all global arms transfers, with the US topping the list of sellers, and India, the United Arab Emirates and Israel being the biggest buyers, a Swedish think tank said.

In a report published yesterday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), just a week before China begins a massive air show in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, the independent institute cautioned that an increase in sales of combat aircraft could have a destabilizing effect in many parts of the world.

Between 2005 and 2009, according to the report, the US sold 341 fighter jets, up from 286 planes sold during the previous five-year period, while Russia sold 219 planes, down from 331, and France sold 75, up from 58.

Only 11 of the world's countries figure on the list of combat aircraft producers: the US, Russia, China, France, Sweden, India and Japan on their own, and Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain as part of the Eurofighter consortium.

However, the list of buyers is far longer.

During the 2005-2009 period, more than 50 countries, including Algeria (32), Bangladesh (16), Israel (82), Jordan (36), Pakistan (23), Syria (33), Venezuela (24), Chile (28), Poland (48), China (45) and Yemen (37), purchased a total of 995 new and secondhand fighter planes.

Then there are the producer countries themselves, with India buying most combat aircraft, with 115 planes, and the US purchasing 33.

On their own, India, the United Arab Emirates and Israel accounted for nearly a third of all fighter jet purchases.

Ironically, the report stressed, "While the transfer of ballistic and cruise missiles and their technology has been high on the arms-control and export-control agendas, in part because of their capability to carry nuclear and other mass destruction weapons, the transfer of advanced combat aircraft and air-to-ground missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads is not."

For producer countries, the economic gains from the planes are significant. "The more advanced aircraft cost more than $40 million each and often substantially more," according to SIPRI, adding, however, that the actual price of such a plane is difficult to estimate.

The Swedish institute quoted the September 16, 2009, edition of Jane's Defence Weekly as showing that while Norway calculated that it paid $54 million for each of its American F35 fighters, the Pentagon estimates it pulled in $97 million for the exact same planes.

AFP